Thursday 6 February 2020, Safety Guide
Sale of Avast antivirus user data
Lost24
PCMag and Vice conducted a journalistic investigation that uncovered the fact that the most popular manufacturer of free antivirus - Avast - trade data of its users.
Avast used Jumpshot to sell user click data. Jumpshot offers access to data from 100 million global users and 20 million application users. One could track Google searches, Google maps search history, YouTube videos, search data input for browser, Facebook and Instagram, Linkedin profiles, etc. Avast tries to defend itself with the fact that the data is anonymous, as it cannot be associated with a specific person. However, such accurate information as specific date, location and phrases entered into the search engine can be easily used to identify an individual.